Meet and Greet with USA Pavilion Student Ambassadors and Employees

Hillary Rodham Clinton
Secretary of State

USA Pavilion at the Shanghai Expo

Shanghai, China

May 22, 2010

SECRETARY CLINTON: Well, all of your ears should be burning, because you have made such a positive impression. And I hear it everywhere, not just from Jose. I hear it from other people, as well. And I think you have really made our people-to-people connections very much a part of what our experience is trying to be, because that’s our whole goal, you know. It is to create lasting connections and understanding between American and Chinese people. And you all represent that.

So, I want you, very quickly, starting right there, to introduce yourself and tell me where you’re from.

PARTICIPANT: I am Deenie, I am from New York.

SECRETARY CLINTON: Yay!

(Laughter.)

SECRETARY CLINTON: Little editorial comment.

(Laughter.)

PARTICIPANT: Imena, from South Carolina.

SECRETARY CLINTON: Great.

PARTICIPANT: (Inaudible.)

PARTICIPANT: (Inaudible.)

PARTICIPANT: Lydia, from Colorado.

PARTICIPANT: I’m Jacqueline, from Massachusetts.

PARTICIPANT: I’m Amy, from California.

PARTICIPANT: I’m Vri, from Buffalo, New York.

SECRETARY CLINTON: Buffalo, New York.

PARTICIPANT: I’m Nina.

PARTICIPANT: I’m Zhing, from California.

PARTICIPANT: I’m Allison, from Pennsylvania.

PARTICIPANT: I’m Ashley, from Long Island, New York.

PARTICIPANT: I’m Bethany, born in Shanghai, now in California.

PARTICIPANT: I’m Ally, I’m from Connecticut.

PARTICIPANT: I’m Lindley, I’m in California.

PARTICIPANT: I’m Caleb, I’m from Detroit, Michigan.

PARTICIPANT: I’m Cathy, I’m from Houston, Texas.

PARTICIPANT: I’m Hannah, I’m from Chicago.

PARTICIPANT: I’m Joy, I’m from Houston, Texas.

PARTICIPANT: I’m Rebecca. I’m from D.C.

PARTICIPANT: And my name is Evan, and I’m from Falls Church, Virginia.

SECRETARY CLINTON: Terrific.

PARTICIPANT: Mark, from Memphis, Tennessee.

SECRETARY CLINTON: Okay.

PARTICIPANT: Sonia, from Hawaii.

PARTICIPANT: Sebastian LaBar, Dallas, Texas.

PARTICIPANT: (Inaudible) Pennsylvania.

PARTICIPANT: Trenton Gabe, from California.

PARTICIPANT: (Inaudible) from Dallas, Texas.

PARTICIPANT: (Inaudible.)

(Laughter.)

SECRETARY CLINTON: A chorus.

PARTICIPANT: David Wong, from Idaho.

PARTICIPANT: I’m Benjamin, Washington State.

PARTICIPANT: Tyler, from Park City, Utah.

PARTICIPANT: (Inaudible), Los Angeles, California.

PARTICIPANT: Ryan, from New York.

SECRETARY CLINTON: Great.

PARTICIPANT: (Inaudible.)

PARTICIPANT: Charles (inaudible).

PARTICIPANT: Taylor, from Salt Lake City.

PARTICIPANT: I’m Janson, from Tulsa, Oklahoma.

PARTICIPANT: Jessica, from Los Angeles, California.

PARTICIPANT: Emily, from Los Angeles, California.

PARTICIPANT: (Inaudible) from Los Angeles.

PARTICIPANT: (Inaudible) from Austin, Texas.

PARTICIPANT: Christina from (inaudible).

PARTICIPANT: Katie, from the Scranton area, and (inaudible).

SECRETARY CLINTON: I heard you say that before —

(Laughter.)

PARTICIPANT: Fisher, from (inaudible).

SECRETARY CLINTON: Okay.

PARTICIPANT: (Inaudible) from Pennsylvania, and now New Haven.

PARTICIPANT: (Inaudible.)

PARTICIPANT: Liberty, from Florida.

PARTICIPANT: Quincy, from Connecticut.

PARTICIPANT: Christina, from San Francisco.

PARTICIPANT: Patricia, from San Francisco.

PARTICIPANT: Sofie, from Minnesota.

PARTICIPANT: Donna, from Boston.

PARTICIPANT: (Inaudible) from Utah.

PARTICIPANT: Katie, from Alabama.

PARTICIPANT: Mica from Utah.

PARTICIPANT: Edward, born and raised in Kansas.

(Laughter.)

SECRETARY CLINTON: I heard that this morning, too.

(Laughter.)

PARTICIPANT: Pam, from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

PARTICIPANT: Lavinia, from Chicago.

PARTICIPANT: Heather, from South Carolina.

PARTICIPANT: Sarah Kate, from Wellesley, Massachusetts.

PARTICIPANT: (Inaudible.)

SECRETARY CLINTON: Great. What a great cross-section.

Now, let me ask you this. How many of you come from families where Mandarin or another Chinese dialect was spoken? So that’s a pretty good number.

And how many of you just started from scratch, because you were interested in learning the language? Oh, that’s very impressive. Lots of challenging days and nights, I think.

(Laughter.)

SECRETARY CLINTON: And now, how many of you are finished with college? You’re done? You’re done? Okay. And then how many of you are still in college, waiting?

I just can’t thank you enough for your willingness to do this, because it’s been just an incredible addition to our pavilion and our presence here at the Expo.

How did you decide to do this? Anybody?

PARTICIPANT: My grandmother.

SECRETARY CLINTON: Your grandmother?

(Laughter.)

SECRETARY CLINTON: Did your grandmother hear about it? Good.

PARTICIPANT: I’ve been in China — this is my third time here. And I lived in Shanghai last summer (inaudible) that the U.S. and China (inaudible) —

SECRETARY CLINTON: Well, you are exactly on the right note on that. What about other people?

PARTICIPANT: After Olympics — I volunteered for Olympics.

SECRETARY CLINTON: Did you?

PARTICIPANT: For the 2008 ones. I had such a good time, I knew I had to come here.

SECRETARY CLINTON: Good. Now, you’re all living in a kind of Expo village, right?

Well, do you have any questions? Do you have anything you want to ask me about?

PARTICIPANT: I really appreciate —

PARTICIPANT: How did you find the pavilion today?

SECRETARY CLINTON: You know what? I liked it. I liked it. And, believe me, I was so relieved, because it was not clear at all, when I became Secretary, that we would have a pavilion. And I thought that would not be a good representation of our country at this important time in history at this event.

You know, expositions are historical markers. I mean, we had expositions in St. Louis — you know that old song, which I’m sure some of you sing, “Meet Me in St. Louis?” Then Chicago had a great exposition. New York had a world’s fair. And it — you know, there are too many of them around the world to be present in all of them. But there are important ones, historically. And this is an important one. And I wanted the United States to be here.

So, when I was here in November, it was really a touch-and-go situation. They had — I guess they had some of the outer steel up, right, Jose? And so that was mid to late November. And we were wondering whether we were going to make it. And I kept telling people, “I will have to put it up myself, if you don’t get it up.”

(Laughter.)

SECRETARY CLINTON: So I was very pleased. I was excited. And when I went to the Chinese pavilion, many, many compliments about our pavilion, about how popular it is. I think Jose and the team told me that there were 40,000 people here yesterday. That’s exhausting.

(Laughter.)

SECRETARY CLINTON: And you have to be smiling and nice and bilingual the whole time. That’s very — a very great accomplishment on your part. But people — you know, people seem to be responding. And that makes me happy, because we want as many people to come as possible, and we want them to get, you know, some feel of who we are, as a people, for the future, for that relationship that, you know, you were talking about.

Well, enjoy the rest of your time here.

PARTICIPANTS: Thank you.

(Applause.)

SECRETARY CLINTON: Wow, you are truly a sight for sore eyes. I can’t thank you enough. I mean, things are really off to a good start, and would not be possible without all of your extraordinary dedication to making things happen.

We had a few death-defying moments, in terms of whether we would get the pavilion built, and get it ready. But all finally worked out. And I am so grateful. So let me thank you, thank you for making this a priority, and understanding the importance of the China-U.S. relationship, and how we are trying to build connections between the American and Chinese people. And I think — have we hit 700,000? Did we hit 700,000?

MR. VILLARREAL: Mark?

PARTICIPANT: Last night.

SECRETARY CLINTON: Last night we hit 700,000. So, you know, that is about as good a beginning as one can imagine. And it’s part of what we call public diplomacy. And every one of you is a public diplomat. So I thank you so much.

17 Responses

What is there no video of this? It would balance out all of those serious pieces where she seems more like a machine, or a largely emotionless workaholic, or whatever you call someone who works all the time and doesn’t sleep. I like it when she puts back together the embarrassing-but-well-intended-mom image even though it usually makes me roll my eyes. “And you have to be smiling and nice and bilingual the whole time.” Seriously!? Hillary Clinton has been making me slightly embarrassed the way only a mother can since the early nineties and its actually grown on me.

It might pop up later. I remember once there was an embassy meet-and-greet where, at the end, she said she wanted a picture with the children, and I wanted a picture of that. A few weeks later, State put the video up.

I love when she gets silly. I am glad for her that she got this Pavilion built, sponsored , and opened. She was so personally invested in getting this done. It must have been a huge relief for her to see it. She deserves to be a little silly.

I found that one at the State Department site along with a few others that I just added to the tour post. (I also just almost drove myself nuts trying to make it visible.) I have trouble with this flash uploader for some reason that WordPress is looking into, so I could not do a bulk upload of all the pictures from yesterday. I chose some, but couldn’t do all. Check out the last two on that tour post where she’s with Haibao and the mayor of Shanghai. Very beautiful and cute.

That makes two of us! She really sparkles in that picture. I wish that video that Lilly put up had not been taken down. Did you have a chance to see it? By the time I finished my “housekeeping” and tried to watch it, it was gone. :*(

No I will NOT be publishing your negative comments about Hillary Clinton on this blog!

Hillary Clinton caught that Hail Mary pass of getting this pavilion built, sponsored, staffed, and running not much more than a year ago. It was a huge task. She hit a lot of snags in getting this done, and she pulled it off. She thought it was an important thing to do. Could it have been done better? Perhaps, if the previous administration had done their part. She did the best she could in the time she had, and I am proud of her work.

So, no, I will not publish your comments. Trash me on your own blog if you so wish.

“A tool of the State Department” – really? Thank you! It’s a compliment. I will be Hillary’s tool any day and long after she leaves the State Department! She has my loyalty.

Hillary Clinton would never have been able to fix everything that went wrong with this process within her time in office. She was either going to get something mediocre together or fail in spectacular fashion in front of the entire world and all its cameras. She got us a pavilion that resembles a bus terminal with company names all over it and deserves credit for the fact that the US pavilion isn’t a camping tent somebody pitched in the middle of the Shanghai Expo. Could we have had a beautiful structure with little to no corporate advertising in it? Yes, but not it the amount of time she had on this project – a year and four months. I’m not prepared to pillory her for not delivering a masterpiece when I’m all but certain a masterpiece was out of her reach from the first day of her tenure.
Is the thought of our Secretary of State sweet-talking corporate big wigs for donations a good one? No, but, when you come straight down to it, that’s how a lot of business gets done everywhere when it comes to big, special, expensive projects. It’s finished and she seems happy and relieved that it’s there at all.

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